03 10 2021

VOL. 18 ISSUE 10

$2

MARCH 10 - 23, 2021

Real Stories

suggested donation goes directly to your vendor

Real People

Real Change

“I’m going to fight until the end”

In the face of mold, asbestos, water leaks, and pests, these tenants are fighting back with a rent strike.

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Each vendor functions as an independent contractor for Street Sense Media, managing their own business to earn an income and increase stability in their life.

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VENDORS Ayub Shuhratjon, Shuhratjon Ahmadjonov, Gerald Anderson, Charles Armstrong, Lawrence Autry, Daniel Ball, Thomas Benefield, Phillip Black, Reginald Black, Debora Brantley, Andre Brinson, Laticia Brock, Brianna Butler, Melody Byrd, Anthony Carney, Carlos Carolina, Nysir Carter, Jeffrey Carter, Conrad Cheek, Curtis Clark, Christina Cole, Anthony Crawford, Jermaine Crowell, Michael Daniels, James Davis, David Denny, Reginald C. Denny, Patricia Donaldson, Ron Dudley, Joshua Faison, Queenie Featherstone, Jemel Fleming, Don Gardner, Chon Gotti, Marcus Green, Levester Green, Vennie Hill, John Howe, Joseph Jackson, Chad Jackson, Fredrick Jewell, Frederic John, Carlton J.M. Johnson, Pierre Johnson, Mark Jones, Reggie Jones, Darlesha Joyner, Larry Kelley, Jewel Lewis, John Littlejohn, Marcus McCall, Jennifer McLaughlin, Jeffery McNeil, Ricardo Meriedy, L. Morrow, Collins Mukasa, Earl Parker, Aida Peery, Marcellus Phillips, Jacquelyn Portee, Abel Putu, Doris Robinson, Michele Rochon, Rita Sauls, Reginald Scott, Patty Smith, Ronald Smoot, David Snyder, Franklin Sterling, Warren Stevens, Beverly Sutton, Sybil Taylor, Eric Thompson-Bey, Julius “Donté” Turner, Joseph Walker, Rochelle Walker, Michael Warner, Robert Warren, Sasha Williams, Wendell Williams, Latishia Wynn BOARD OF DIRECTORS Mary Coller Albert, Blake Androff, Jeremy Bratt, David Cloe, Clare Krupin, Jennifer Park, Michael Phillips, Dan Schwartz, John Senn, Aaron Stetter, Daniel Webber, Shari Wilson, Corrine Yu

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CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER Brian Carome

As self-employed contractors, our vendors follow this code of conduct: 1.

2.

3.

Street Sense will be distributed for a voluntary donation of $2.00. I agree not to ask for more than $2.00 or solicit donations for Street Sense Media by any other means.

I will only purchase the paper from Street Sense Media staff and volunteers and will not sell papers to other vendors.

I agree to treat all others, including customers, staff, volunteers, and other vendors, respectfully at all times. I will refrain from threatening others, pressuring customers into making a donation, or in engaging in behavior that condones racism, sexism, classism, or other prejudices.

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I agree not to distribute copies of Street Sense on metro trains and buses or on private property.

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I understand that I am not an employee of Street Sense Media, but an independent contractor.

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I agree to sell no additional goods or products when distributing Street Sense.

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I will not distribute Street Sense under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

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I understand that my badge and (if applicable) vest are property of Street Sense Media, and will not deface them. I will present my badge when purchasing Street Sense. I will always display my badge when distributing Street Sense.

10. I agree to support Street Sense Media’s mission statement. In doing so I will work to support the Street Sense community and uphold its values of honesty, respect, support, and opportunity.

11. I understand that until further notice, all Street Sense Media Vendors are required to wear a face mask and gloves while vending to the public. This Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) will be provided and replaced as needed.

INTERESTED IN BEING A VENDOR? New vendor training: every Tuesday and Thursday // 2 p.m. // 1317 G St., NW

EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Eric Falquero

DEPUTY EDITOR Jake Maher

DIRECTOR OF VENDOR EMPLOYMENT Thomas Ratliff

VENDOR PROGRAM ASSOCIATES Aida Peery, Marcellus Phillips, Clifford Samuels

DIRECTOR OF PROGRAMS Darick Brown

CASE MANAGER Charlie Musoff

OPERATIONS MANAGER Raven Neely

DIRECTOR OF DEVELOPMENT AND COMMUNICATIONS Doris Warrell

WRITERS GROUP ARTISTS-IN-RESIDENCE Willie Schatz

The Cover

The Street Sense Media Story, #MoreThanANewspaper

Photo of the Marbury Plaza Apartments off of Good Hope Road in Southeast, D.C.

Originally founded as a street newspaper in 2003, Street Sense Media has evolved into a multimedia center using a range of creative platforms to spotlight solutions to homelessness and empower people in need. The men and women who work with us do much more than sell this paper: They use film, photography, theatre, illustration, and more to share their stories with our community.

Our media channels elevate voices, our newspaper vendor and digital marketing programs provide economic independence. And our in-house case-management services move people forward along the path toward permanent supportive housing.

At Street Sense Media, we define ourselves through our work, talents, and character, not through our housing situation.

PHOTOS BY BEN GUTMAN

Intern

OPINION EDITORS (VOLUNTEER) Rachel Brody, Lydia DePillis, Britt Peterson

INTERNS Athiyah Azeem, Matt Gannon, Ben Gutman, Kaela Roeder, Kate Santaliz, Lilly Tanenbaum, Monique Wilson

EDITORIAL VOLUNTEERS Ryan Bacic, Katie Bemb, Lilah Burke, Lenika Cruz, Kelsey Falquero, Jacqueline Groskaufmanis, Roberta Haber, Moira McAvoy, Nick Shedd, Andrew Siddons, Jenny-lin Smith, Orion Donovan-Smith

VENDOR PROGRAM VOLUNTEERS Haley Gallagher, Katherine Kuenzle, Taylor Maddox, Eva Reeves

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

EVENTS

// 3

EXTRA EXTRA! Street Sense will become a weekly paper in April

BY ERIC FALQUERO editor@streetsensemedia.org

Transformation of the Urban Space : Raw Hope of Humanity Rising Wednesday, March 17, 6 - 7:30 p.m. / Online Performance art company Third Space Network will host this panel as part of its Raw Hope of Humanity Rising series on continued injustices surrounding the pandemic, Black Lives Matter, racial reckoning, gentrification and political polarization in Washington D.C. and throughout the country. The panel will feature Ian Callender, owner of Suite Nation and co-owner of Sandlot Southeast D.C.; Keyonna Jones, D.C. artist and executive director of Congress Heights Arts & Culture Center; and David “Dez” Zambrano, D.C. artist/co-creator of the RBG mural near BLM Plaza.

Register at: tinyurl.com/art-panel-sign-up THURSDAY, MARCH 18

UPDATES ONLINE AT ICH.DC.GOV

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 10

Solutions for Housing Communications 2021 online convening

D.C. Interagency Council on Homelessness Meetings

Virtual work session: Map racial covenants in Washington DC

11 a.m. - 4:30 p.m. / Online This event, hosted by the National Housing Conference, will convene housing advocates and communicators for a full day of engaging sessions on the latest tactics and strategies for raising awareness of and support for affordable housing.

Register at: tinyurl.com/housing-communicationsevent

Housing Solutions Committee March 15, 3:00 p.m.

Strategic Planning Committee March 23, 2:30 p.m. ***For call-in information, as well as meeting info for unlisted working groups, contact: ich.info@dc.gov.

8 - 9 p.m. / Online The University of Minnesota Library’s Mapping Prejudice project is partnering with public historians at Prologue D.C. to look for volunteers to help map racially restrictive covenants, which enforced racial residential segregation in the early 20th century.

Register at: tinyurl.com/mapping-prejudice-project

Submit your event for publication by emailing editor@streetsensemedia.org

AUDIENCE EXCHANGE Kimberly Easson @JavaVenturer

Melissa Schweisguth @maschweisguth

DC friends. I often don’t have cash in hand when I’m

The app is also great for non-DC-residents friends who

out and meet people on the street. No matter any

work in DC but are telecommuting and staying home/

more. I can still contribute to support local vendors.

close to home. It’s been a great way to pay my vendor

@streetsencedc streetsensemedia.org/app

& other Street Sense artists during the pandemic!

9:04 PM - FEB 26, 2021

7:44 PM - FEB 27, 2021

Next month, Street Sense Media will realize a long-time goal of doubling how often we publish the street paper of our nation’s capital.

Following our April 7 edition, you can look forward to a new publication every Wednesday! At the heart of this expansion is one simple thing: vendor income. We project that the women and men selling our newspaper will earn an average of 40% more money based on what our sister street papers in Chicago, Seattle, and Portland who have transitioned to weekly distribution have observed.

This increase will help vendors meet their daily, basic needs​and make the program more attractive to new vendors.

The more consistent income will make saving and budgeting funds from working with Street Sense Media easier. And we will also be able to pay the artists who contribute to Street Sense— writers, photographers, illustrators, and more — twice as often.

A 2015 analysis of our past sales data found that sales were, on average, 74% higher in the first week of paper’s circulation. And in a readership survey the next year, a whopping 78% of you said you would purchase the paper every week if we made this change.

Writing, editing, designing, and printing twice as much is a big lift and it has taken a long time to successfully connect with the generous funders who have made this happen. Last year, we hired a second full-time editor (Deputy Editor Jake Maher), doubling the size of our editorial department. And we are continuing to recruit volunteer editors, reporters, and page designers. (streetsensemedia.org/volunteer/) More frequent publication also strengthens our product to better serve you. The range and depth of our journalism has continued to grow from year to year. Publishing more frequently will mean bringing our print readers more timely news by featuring articles that would usually run online only. It also allows space to spotlight more relevant news from our partner newsrooms: DCist, The DC Line, Greater Greater Washington, and other street papers from around the world. Our community community calendar and job listings will be more frequent. The voices and talents shared in our pages through poetry, prose, and visual art will diversify and be amplified all the more. And the opinion section, which is open to all members of our community, will be able to provide a platform for more timely commentary and debate. (opinion@streetsensemedia.org) A lot has changed over the past year. The pandemic decimated paper sales; street vendors cannot work from home. Our community rallied around us, helping to establish a vendor assistance fund for our case management department and increasingly using our mobile payments app (streetsensemedia.org/app) to pay vendors for what you’re reading at home, or just to provide them extra support. But none of this has measured up to the same level of income Street Sense Media vendors earned previously.

As our community works through the vaccine rollout and continues to rebuild and recover, we want to be there to meet your information needs every week and provide a stronger no-barrier work opportunity than ever before.

As of today, we are also re-launching an email newsletter to remind subscribers whenever a new paper is published, highlight online-only stories you may have missed, and elevate other local newsroom’s coverage of poverty in our community. You can sign up for these messages by visiting StreetSenseMedia.org/connect and choosing to receive updates about “our newsgathering.”

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NEWS

More than 100 people attended a Feb. 20 vigil for Angela Hill under the Souza bridge. PHOTOS BY KAELA ROEDER

An undated family photo of Angela Hill.

PROVIDED COURTESY OF ASHLEY BROWN

Angela Hill, a fixture in Southeast DC, dies at 58

BY KAELA ROEDER kaela.roeder@streetsensemedia.org

F

amily and neighbors gathered at the John Philip Sousa Bridge underpass on Feb. 20 to celebrate the life of Angela Hill, a 58-year-old mother and grandmother, who died of natural causes Feb.17. She had lived at the underpass, which leads to I-295, for at least 10 years, according to her daughter, Ashley Brown.

Over 100 people attended the Saturday evening vigil to honor Hill. Several community members referred to Hill as a “fixture” in the community, including Kip Banks, a pastor at the East Washington Baptist Church. He also led part of the service. Several family members and neighbors shared stories with the crowd, lit candles and laid flowers in Hill’s memory at the vigil.

“Whenever you pass under this underpass, remember Ms. Angela,” Banks said to the crowd at the event.

Hill lived with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder for decades, Brown said. She also refused to go to homeless shelters. Hill made the underpass her home, sleeping on a mattress surrounded by blankets and items brought by neighbors and family in the Hillcrest area.

Other times, she would decline items or

throw supplies into the street.

“Despite illness and despite her cussing people out, deep inside my mom was so sweet and loving and loved by her family,” Brown said. “She would honestly do anything in her power to keep people happy. And she loved her siblings. She loved her children. And I know she would have loved her grandchildren. And I just want to remember her as just my mom, not the part where she's ill. I just wish people knew the real her.”

Sybil Taylor, a vendor with Street Sense Media, had interacted with Hill for years prior to her death. Riding the 30N or 30S bus, Taylor would pass Hill at the underpass of the John Philip Sousa Bridge. Taylor passed Hill while riding the bus the day she passed away where Hill was laying down at her usual spot.

Taylor said she and others on the bus were worried about Hill because of the cold.

Taylor found out later that Hill had died.

“She was just laid out, asleep. So, I thought she was sleeping,” Taylor said.

“And then when I got the news that she had died, it really shocked me because that's the last time I've seen her out there.”

Taylor would often see Hill at the Citgo gas station on Pennsylvania Ave. SE near the underpass, where Hill would speak to neighbors and get supplies. She was

“famous” there, Taylor said. residents shared similar experiences at “She was liked by the whole the vigil. community. The whole community liked “I always thought we should’ve her,” Taylor said. understood and tried to find ways to help Brown and her brother, Angel Hill, her,” Mellese said. “Just last week, I was were removed from Hill’s care in the thinking to bring her more [supplies]. But 1990s. But before that time, Brown said I always thought ‘Tomorrow will always she remembered nice moments, like be there.’” walking around the playground at Moten The cause of Hill’s death was Elementary, watching television, playing pulmonary embolism, a blood clot in the puzzles together and “a lot of girls time” lungs, per the Office of the Chief Medical with her mom and Michelle Hill, Brown’s Examiner. aunt and Hill’s sister.

In 2020, 180 people experiencing After Brown and her brother went into homelessness in the District died, according foster care, she said Hill would still try and to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner. find her and her brother. Brown and her Twenty-three of them died as a result of brother were adopted COVID-19, as for a few years when did two more she was young. people this year, She remembers her according to the mother going to the D.C. Department residence for Brown of Human and her brother.

Services. At least “I heard a knock seven people at the door, and it experiencing was her,” Brown homelessness said. “And she came have died thus far looking for me and in D.C. in 2021.

Ashley Brown my brother. And, of There was an Hill’s daughter course, [her adoptive another service parent] called the a week later for police because she Hill, organized got belligerent and she wanted to get us

by Jewel Stroman and Tiff Aziz. A from him. And she couldn't, legally she GoFundMe has also been established to couldn't.” help support the family.

Many residents would bring Hill food, Street Sense Media aims to write an obituary water, deodorant and other supplies. for every person who dies without housing Meherent Mellese brought Hill a cart with in D.C. If you have more critical information supplies years ago — she had passed Hill about Ms. Hill, or know of someone else whose every day on her way to work. Hill had life should be remembered in our pages, please contact editor@streetsensemedia.org. initially pushed her away. Mellese said she saw Hill use the cart later. Many

“I just want to remember her as just my mom, not the part where she's ill.

I just wish people knew the real her.”

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

// 5

With a return to limited in-person learning, some DC families see hope while others remain wary

BY MONIQUE WILSON monique.wilson@streetsensemedia.org

D.

C. Public Schools reopened limited in-person learning at the beginning of February for the first time in almost a year.

Not all parents, however, are eager to send their children back. And for low-income or housing-insecure parents facing that decision, the ongoing economic crisis leaves them with no good options.

On March 11, 2020, Mayor Muriel Bowser announced a public health emergency amid rising cases of COVID-19, and on March 16, D.C. Public Schools extended its spring break until March 24. Since then, the majority of students in D.C. have attended school remotely until recently, when months of back and forth among parents, D.C. Public Schools, the Office of the State Superintendent, and the Washington Teachers’ Union resulted in an agreement to return. Per a memo from the D.C. Department of General Services, each school will have its own operating plan, including measures to facilitate social distancing, train custodial staff in deep-cleaning protocols, and install improved air filters. There will also be a “situation room” for the DCPS chancellor and the president of the Washington Teachers’ Union to meet and resolve any COVID-related issues.

The operating plan for each school is formed by the school’s Reopen Community Corps. This group is composed of community members, school officials, and members of the Parent- Teachers Association. This group dictates how many days per week students are allowed to attend school in person, along with the length of time each day.

Ayana Osborne, a mother of four children, chose to send two of her children to in-person learning at the start of February.

Osborne thought having her children in school would alleviate the pressure and stress but she said, “It’s a waste. They’re there by 8:30 then I gotta be there by 12 o’clock to pick them up. And I have accomplished maybe two things in that time.”

With her two eldest attending school in-person, it remains challenging for her to take care of her youngest child, who was recently evaluated with a mild intellectual disability. “For elementary, none of the special teachers are there in person,” Osborne said. “You have the CARE teachers there, but not the [special education] teachers. So there’s no point in my youngest going to school if the special people to work with her aren’t there.”

According to the DCPS reopening website, “Canvas Academics And Real Engagement” (CARE) classrooms provide online learning for students at school: a quiet space to work, a computer or tablet and headset, breakfast, lunch, and recess. Of the 81 schools listed as providing CARE

DCPS’s Hyde-Addison Elementary School in Georgetown. PHOTO BY MONIQUE WILSON

classrooms, three also have an in-person learning classroom with a volunteer teacher.

Osborne feels unprepared to care for her youngest child’s educational and disability needs because “these things are not being implemented or thought about by the special education population. What things are [DCPS] preparing these parents [with]?” Osborne said. “We don’t have training.”

Nery Peña, a mother of two daughters in a transitional housing program, made the decision to enroll her children in in-person learning. “I do have a worry” about the risk of COVID-19, Peña told Street Sense Media, but ultimately she felt it was better to have her kids physically in school.

“For my youngest, who has an [Individualized Educational Program (IEP)] and development delay, [remote learning]it was super hard for her,” said Peña, a teacher within the D.C. Charter School system. “She didn’t like it. She would cry every day. She easily gets distracted, and she didn’t know what was going on.”

Returning to the classroom, Peña felt, would be an improvement over remote learning. “A first and second grader don’t have that help to log in every day,” she said. “I couldn’t give it to them, they’re not gonna do it. They’re not gonna be interested or they’re gonna find it hard or a struggle to log in every day.”

As a low-income parent, Peña took advantage of devices and internet access provided by DCPS. However, the computers created more problems than solutions.

“Once school started [in August], they were given laptops, headphones, and Wi-Fi and some materials, which was awesome,” Peña said. “But I feel as though the computers were a little outdated, so they were giving a lot of technical problems. They were a little more complicated to manage because they were so old.”

Peña added: “It’s really hard for kids with IEP to have a full virtual day. She really wasn’t connected, and she really fell behind this year.”

Ultimately, this finalized Peña’s decision to enroll her daughter in in-person learning.

“Her going back to school, for her, was super important for me so she can catch up and receive those services she was receiving in school,” Peña said. She is content with her decision to send her children to school. “Now they go have recess outside,” she said. “Sometimes their lunch is outside.”

Peña and Osborne are low-income parents who have recently moved into secure housing. But for parents and children experiencing homelessness, the challenges of remote learning have

been severe, and the return to school can be a welcome change.

According to DCPS there were 1,892 homeless students registered for school as of Feb. 1, 22% of whom were enrolled in in-person learning. This is consistent with the rate among the broader DCPS student body: About 20% of all DCPS students are enrolled in in-person learning as of now.

Students experiencing housing insecurity or doubling up in households have been among those most affected by the coronavirus pandemic. Before the pandemic, schools provided basic services for many homeless and low-income pupils.

Unable to attend school in-person, students were forced to navigate unpredictable circumstances regarding unreliable Wi-Fi and lack of access to laptops. They also struggled with mental health supports and a stable environment for learning.

Case managers have been working closely with parents and children in the city’s family shelters “throughout the COVID19 pandemic,” the Department of Human Services said in an email to Street Sense Media. “Case managers have an active role in distance learning support for families who may face challenges, and advocate with schools to allow the student to attend in-person learning,” the statement continued. They ensure school-age children are enrolled and have a device, track their attendance, and share parenting and mental health resources with both generations in the family.

Homeless students will be a priority as DCPS moves further towards fully opening schools in the future, according to Deputy Mayor for Education Paul Kihn.

Part of that prioritization will include an expansion of the D.C. State Board of Education’s Office of the Student Advocate, which represents students’ interests. The SBOE has requested funding to increase the office’s staff size to better identify students and families that are at risk and match them with wraparound support services.

Still, one month into D.C.’s experiment with in-person learning, D.C. officials have recognized that the number of students learning in person will likely not increase during the current school year despite falling infection rates and a growing vaccinated population.

The decision of whether to expand in-person learning will ultimately be made by principals, and officials did not mention the implications for homeless students specifically. But all DCPS schools are constrained in their reopening plans by factors like social distancing requirements and caps on class sizes that school leaders are not allowed to override.

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NEWS

DC Housing Authority begins vaccine rollout while seniors in nonprofit low-income housing are left behind

BY KAELA ROEDER kaela.roeder@streetsensemedia.org

D.

C. Health partnered with the D.C. Housing Authority, Johns Hopkins Health System and the United Medical Center to administer the COVID-19 vaccine to seniors in public housing properties beginning at the end of January.

But as the D.C. Housing Authority (DCHA) has started this rollout, private affordable housing programs for seniors have been struggling due to lack of federal support and technological barriers. This includes nonprofits that offer long-term affordable housing for seniors and similar programs.

D.C. Health allocated at least 1,950 doses for the DCHA properties, and as of midFebruary, 1,040 people have been vaccinated at 13 of DCHA’s 15 properties that house seniors, according to D.C. Health. This includes residents, staff, and other qualifying seniors. All scheduled first doses were complete as of mid-February, and DCHA is currently assessing interest in vaccination clinics at the two final properties.

Health care partners are setting up clinics at each residential property either in common areas of the building or a mobile unit.

“The senior population is most susceptible to this virus and we want to do everything possible to protect them,” said DCHA Executive Director Tyrone Garrett in a press release. “Bringing medical staff directly to our seniors to administer this highly effective vaccine safely in their own communities is an easy way to eliminate any barriers or health disparities in serving this vulnerable population.”

D.C. also began distributing COVID19 vaccines to people experiencing homelessness in low-barrier shelters and Pandemic Emergency Program for Medically Vulnerable Individuals centers earlier this month. The D.C. Department of Human Services is collaborating with Unity Health Care, a nonprofit that offers medical services

to people experiencing homelessness in D.C., to complete the rollout.

Still, technological and transportation barriers persist, according to public and government senior advocates who testified at a two-day hearing held by the D.C. Council’s Committee on Health at the end of January.

Dwight Mayes, the director of housing management at the National Caucus and Center on Black Aging, focused his testimony on his application to the Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care. This is a CDC program where participating pharmacies provide on-site COVID-19 vaccination services for residents of nursing homes, assisted living facilities, and independent living centers.

Organizations in the District register with D.C. Health to participate in this program.

Mayes applied in January for the center’s D.C. property, Samuel J. Simmons NCBA Estates in Columbia Heights, to participate in the program. He said that after over a month, he had received no confirmation of this registration. The pharmacy partnership program was announced in October 2020.

When he applied, there was no indication the program was at capacity or past-deadline, he said.

Snapshots of the CDC’s program page accessed via Archive.org show that on Jan. 5 the website featured information about how to sign up. But there was no specific deadline visible. The next available archive of the website is Jan. 19. In the Jan. 19 snapshot, the information about how to sign-up had been removed and new information stating which types of facilities were eligible for the program before enrollment closed had been added.

“Don’t just forget about us as affordable senior housing providers,” Mayes said in an interview. “Whether we missed the initial sign-up or not, I think there should be consideration to give some kind of focus on our group.”

D.C. Health said in an email to Street Sense Media that conversations on expanding the

vaccine rollout to seniors residing in properties would help out not only our residents in that it not owned by DCHA are “ongoing.” would give them direct access to the vaccine,” The Samuel J. Simmons NCBA Estates he said in an interview, “it also would serve houses 161 residents. In January, a survey was as a benefit to the community of Columbia given to the community, and 106 responded Heights.” indicating they wanted to be vaccinated — Jessica Petro, the executive director of the about 65% of residents, Mayes said. senior affordable housing residence Sarah’s Mayes said the team has been assisting Circle, testified at the hearing and spoke on the residents in applying for vaccine technological barriers and lack of assistance appointments online individually, but there for elderly residents living independently. have been many obstacles. Having an on-site “‘Independent living’ can be a misnomer, clinic with the help of the D.C. and federal because I think a lot of folks think people governments would reduce these barriers and who live in an independent building and are a allow vaccinations to be more of a “fluid” senior can do everything for themselves,” she process, he said. said at the oversight hearing. “But oftentimes, Technical problems with D.C. Health’s that’s not the case.” vaccination page Petro recommended and phone system distributing vaccines occurred Thursday and at a “community-based Friday as thousands of site level,” similar to the appointments opened pharmacy partnership for residents who meet program that Mayes specific eligibility applied to, where people requirements, such can easily gather to as having specific address logistical issues medical conditions, with signing up for an DCist reported. Issues appointment.

Dwight Mayes, National Caucus included errors in the Sarah’s Circle was and Center on Black Aging CAPTCHA verification able to take part in the and website crashes. pharmacy partnership, Councilmember but this isn’t the norm, Vincent Gray tweeted his concerns about said Ilana Xuman, the executive director the technical issues and wrote he plans to of not-for-profit senior service provider address these problems at the D.C. Health LeadingAge D.C. Senior affordable housing performance oversight hearing Thursday, communities in the nonprofit sector have not March 4. been supported in the same way, she said.

At the January hearing, Mayes asked the “These are people who … need that council to provide more clarity on the viability support,” Xuman said in an interview. of the vaccine partnership program as well. “It

“Don’t just forget about us as affordable senior housing providers.”

Photo courtesy of Steven Cornfield / Unsplash.com

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

// 7

AT A GLANCE

Andre Justine collecting the rest of his personal belongings stored in a friend’s tent on March 3. PHOTO BY KATE SANTALIZ

Making room for construction projects in NoMa, DC government conducts its 18th encampment cleanup in 2021

BIRTHDAYS

BY KATE SANTALIZ kate.santalize@streetsensemedia.org

A

ndre Justine had been living on 1st and H streets NE for six months, but on March 4, his tent was thrown away, displacing him from his home and community. Justine, along with several others, had their personal belongings and tents discarded by the city as a part of a scheduled “full cleanup” of the encampment organized by the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Health and Human Services (DMHHS).

“I didn’t have time to move all of my stuff,” Justine said, “so they took it away and threw it away.” At the time of the cleanup, Justine was speaking with his doctor, trying to get his medication.

“I didn’t have anywhere else to put it,” Justine added. “It had to be moved because they had to put the fence there.” In order to make room for a new construction project, city workers discarded three tents. Officials arrived at 9 a.m. and began the cleanup at 10 a.m.

DMHHS did not initially provide any comments in response to Street Sense Media’s requests.

Residents also said they were not aware of what this cleanup entailed. “I knew it was happening today, but I didn’t know they were going to throw his stuff away,” said Aiesha Allen, resident of the encampment. “All I was aware of was that they were supposed to be welding the door.”

This encampment cleanup marks the 18th since the start of the new year. These sweeps often leave residents with nowhere else to go. Many say they want to avoid shelters amid the COVID-19 pandemic in addition to other personal reasons. At the start of the pandemic, the city halted encampment cleanups as the CDC recommended, but they have slowly started picking back up again. While the DMHHS has taken steps to improve the hygiene of encampments, such as installing portable restrooms and handwashing stations around some encampment areas, these sweeps are still considered dangerous in the context of the pandemic.

As of March 22, 2020, the CDC has recommended pausing encampment sweeps, since outdoor settings and less contact can lower the risks of contracting COVID-19. The layout of encampments can also help facilitate social distancing and create overall safer conditions in comparison to indoor

Artist/Vendor Marcellus Phillips has joined our staff as a Vendor Program Associate.

congregate settings. If individuals are uprooted and dispersed throughout the city, this can lead to further spread of disease and disrupt access to essential services, according to the CDC. As of March 5, 519 individuals living in shelters had tested positive for COVID-19.

Some other residents, however, said they wanted the cleanup. Some took the initiative to call DHS and Pathways to Housing and ask for a removal of the trash in front of their tents. DMHHS coordinates both trash-only cleanups, in which residents do not have to move their tents or belongings, and full encampment cleanups, which require residents to remove their belongings. According to the District’s updated COVID19 protocol, DMHHS tries to convert scheduled “full cleanup engagements” to “trash-only engagements” as much as possible.

Residents camped on 1st and H streets NE said they started to experience a significant rat problem, affecting their health and wellbeing. “We wanted the cleanup because there was too much trash, it looked terrible here,” said Laura Morgan, a resident of the encampment. “So we wanted the trash gone because the rats were everywhere.”

Residents were further dealing with broken street lights.

The entirety of the block became pitch black at night, placing residents in immediate danger as soon as the sun set. “We called the city because they had the lights off on this corner all the way down to the overpass. And then from there on, the lights were on,” Morgan said, “[A resident of the encampment] was murdered here about 3 weeks ago. And we said [to the city], ‘you guys, no, we are not going to be in danger here.’”

“We asked for a cleanup here, and we asked them to fix the lights, but we didn’t ask for them to take anyone’s tent,” Morgan added.

DMHHS plans on conducting several more cleanups in the coming months, despite rising COVID-19 numbers in the homeless population. A trash-only cleanup was conducted at 17th and Corcoran streets NW on March 9.

“We don’t want any problems here, so if they were to kick us out of here, where are we going to go?” Morgan said, “There is a lot of criminal activity, it’s dangerous around here, so we like our little safe space.”

Lorrie Hayes March 12 VENDOR

Patty Smith March 19 ARTIST/VENDOR

ACCOMPLISHMENTS Eric Thompson-Bey ARTIST/VENDOR

Began coursework at Byte Back.

Reginald Black ARTIST/VENDOR

Included in the top 25 finalists (of 362 people nominated) for the 2021 Black Justice Fellowship.

Our stories, straight to your inbox Street Sense Media provides a vehicle through which all of us can learn about homelessness from those who have experienced it. Sign up for our newsletter to get our vendors' stories in your inbox.

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NEWS

Tenants at Marbury Plaza renew a decade-old rent strike as COVID-19 exacerbates a history of neglect

BY BEN GUTMAN ben.gutman@streetsensemedia.org

O

n Oct. 31, 2020, Barbara Cooper left her apartment at Marbury Plaza in Southeast D.C. to attend a “cancel the rent” protest across town at Mayor Muriel Bowser’s home in Shepherd Park. Cooper, a tenant organizer at Marbury Plaza, spoke in front of approximately 150 people about her experience suffering through not only the pandemic, but also poor conditions in her apartment, rental debt, and lack of security.

She pleaded for Bowser to take action and cancel the rent for struggling Washingtonians barely able to put food on the table.

More than two months later, Cooper made the same journey from her deteriorating building to another upper northwest neighborhood to speak about rent cancellation. This time it was in the Palisades to 200 protesters outside the house of Biden’s domestic policy chief, Susan Rice. She echoed the same demand.

Starting in June, organizers with the D.C. Tenants Union partnered with Cooper and other tenant leaders at Marbury Plaza to organize a rent strike and push the landlord and city government for rental relief. The strike has since swelled to include 70 tenants withholding rent and paying the amount for each month’s rent into an escrow account instead.

[Disclosure: This reporter previously worked as a volunteer community organizer with the D.C. Tenants Union.]

“I’m all in for [a rent strike],” Cooper said. “I’m going to fight until the end, and I’m not giving up because I feel as though everyone should be able to live comfortably.”

Throughout Cooper’s seven years as a resident of Marbury Plaza, she has dealt with multiple building management companies that she said were incompetent and disregarded residents’ well-being. In 2015, Vantage Management took over building operations from Urban Investment Partners (UIP). UIP has a long history of buying up rent controlled buildings and then letting them deteriorate.

“Management doesn’t really care. I think they’re here just for a paycheck. They’re very nasty, very disrespectful. They look down on you. They don’t want us to owe them, but they don’t want to fix up nothing,” said Cooper, who uses a federal housing voucher to cover most of her rent.

Cooper’s two-bedroom garden unit has been a microcosm of the apartment complex’s chronic maintenance issues. “In this apartment I’ve had more than 20 floods,” she said. Most recently, on Feb. 13, Cooper opened the door to her apartment and walked into water as high as her ankles “flowing out like a river.” She stood there in horror and disbelief thinking to herself, “What am I going to do?”

After calling emergency maintenance, Cooper waited for four hours for them to turn off the water. As maintenance helped her clear out the apartment, they ripped her treasured carpet. After a previous flood, Cooper had bought that carpet with money she had saved for a family vacation. Cooper blames the constant flooding on a broken pipe outside her unit that management has attempted to repair but refuses to remove and replace. “It’s

the same pipe they dug up, but they don’t fix the problem, they put Band-Aids over the problem,” she said.

In addition to chronic flooding, Cooper was without heat from Feb. 12 to Feb. 23 and resorted to her oven, boiling water on the stove, and a small portable heater as her primary sources of heat. “For $1300-plus every month I should walk around my apartment comfortably,” she said. “I did not sign up for this”.

LaVerne Grant, a Marbury Plaza resident since 2018, described an array of persistent maintenance issues that predate the coronavirus pandemic. These include constant water leakage and water-damaged ceilings, elevator maintenance issues including exposed wires, duct taped pipes and disrepair in the laundry rooms, mold, and vermin infestation. Grant is particularly concerned for the building’s substantial elderly and disabled population.

“They give you notice the day before that hot water and heat are going to be cut off. They have one elevator working in a building that has 12 floors.

We have a lot of elderly people in here, Grant said.

“That’s not good because that’s not social distancing.”

Grant said Vantage Management took all Exposed wires in the ceiling of the the furniture out of the only functional elevator in Marbury main building on Dec. 17. building’s lobby to prevent Plaza’s PHOTO BY BEN GUTMAN people from coming in, lounging, and putting residents at risk of coronavirus. However, management has also used COVID-19 as an excuse to avoid maintenance responsibilities.

“When you call them they tell you they can’t come in and fix anything because of the pandemic. It has to be an emergency, but they don’t have a problem taking my money,” Grant said.

Vantage Management did not respond to requests for comment.

A history of neglect On Jan. 11, 2005, Vanessa Brantley and her 2-year-old daughter, Shiah, were killed in a gas explosion in Marbury Plaza’s secondfloor laundry room. At least 19 other residents were injured.

Investigators believed that the explosion was caused by “thieves pulling laundry equipment from natural gas lines in an attempt to steal coins,” according to a Washington Post report.

In response to this tragic event and increasingly deteriorating conditions, including “longstanding security and maintenance issues,” more than 100 Marbury Plaza residents launched a two-year rent strike from 2008 – 2010. Eventually, the owner of Marbury Plaza, A&A Marbury LLC (New York-based real-estate developers Lightstone Group and the Collins Group), was forced to invest $5 million in the building under a settlement overseen by the D.C. attorney general, which

designated UIP as property manager. However, two years after the settlement, residents remained concerned that conditions were subpar, security was lax, and affordability was on the decline. Organizing efforts had also stalled as lead organizer and resident April Goggans was evicted from Marbury Plaza for non-payment of rent in January 2012.

Goggans voiced her displeasure in an e-mail to the Marbury Plaza Tenant Association obtained by The Washington City Paper in March 2012. “[UIP’s] message is that they can and will continue to try to divide and further marginalize the tenants so that the Association will die and tenants will act and feel defeated,” she wrote. Goggans’s statement proved to be prophetic.

For the next eight years, residents’ despair grew. In 2015, 27-year-old Alonzo Smith was killed at the Marbury Plaza Apartments while in the custody of special police officers.

The officers worked for Blackout Investigation and Security Services, a private firm hired by Vantage Management.

The breaking point for Cooper came when management put a notice on her door saying she was short on rent by $4.

“This is a little ridiculous, you could have just added that onto next month’s rent. It’s the small things that increase anxiety and we got tired,” Cooper said.

The revival of a Marbury Plaza Tenant Association Grant temporarily moved to Marbury Plaza in 2018 while her apartment in Bellevue underwent renovations. She had waged a long fight to improve conditions in her 15-unit building until her landlord provided residents with an offer of sale under D.C.’s Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act. Grant now serves as the Vice-President of the 22 Atlantic Cooperative Association, which received $2,669,924 in Housing Protection Trust Fund (HPTF) financing to rehabilitate dilapidated conditions. As she continues to wait for the completion of the renovations, she’s grown tired of the way tenants are treated at Marbury Plaza. “The conditions were bad even before the pandemic,” Grant said.

A recent incident experienced by Grant at Marbury Plaza had the potential to end like the 2005 gas leak. Early on Dec. 14, she smelled gas in the hallway while taking out the trash and started calling the management company at 5:30 a.m. to report it.

“No one got here until 7 a.m. and by that time Washington Gas had come. A gentleman had had his gas on all night,” Grant said. “When I asked management what had taken the guy so long … they said, ‘He lives far away.’ I said, ‘Then why is he on the emergency [24/7 call service]?’ It could have blew all of us up.”

In addition to security concerns, Grant’s $1200 one-bedroom apartment at Marbury Plaza is $500 more expensive than her apartment in Congress Heights. Fortunately, the government helps Grant pay the difference.

“A lot of us are scared that if we don’t pay our rent, they’re going to set us out,” Grant says. Despite that fear, Grant has joined many of her neighbors in withholding rent until the landlord adequately addresses maintenance issues.

Kiara Davis, an organizer with the D.C. Tenants Union, has worked since July 2020 to rebuild tenant unity, confidence, and power at Marbury Plaza.

Davis and striking tenants at Marbury Plaza have increased support for the strike through bi-weekly mutual aid distributions that assisted dozens of tenant families from August to December.

“There’s a lot of revolutionary potential in this complex.

Lots of people who have been used and abused. Living with mold, mice. People who have been really downtrodden. Putting these [mutual aid] events on — people are really excited about them because, like I’ve heard from a lot of people, there hasn’t been a lot of positivity in years,” Davis said. “Feeding people,

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

decent housing, toys, school supplies, this is not only a way to build a working class movement, but to build relationships with neighbors, organizers, and really make a big change.”

However, Davis, Cooper, and Grant have all been deeply disappointed by the apartment management’s response to mutual-aid efforts during the health crisis.

“The toughest thing to deal with has been confrontations with security and police,” Davis said. “We’ve been doing mutual aid since the end of August. First food drive, security came out and told us to leave. The second time, they called the cops because we wouldn’t leave from the front lawn.”

After the encounter with law enforcement, Davis had the legal assistance nonprofit Rising for Justice send Vantage Management a cease-and-desist order. However, the company called the Metropolitan Police Department a second time, claiming that cars standing in the driveway to pick up food were violating the complex’s fire-lane policy. Davis contacted the Office of the Attorney General to help enforce D.C.’s right of tenants to organize. MPD has not been called since.

Incidents like these are why Davis has emphasized the importance of political and legal education throughout the rent strike. In July, Davis organized a “know your rights” meeting with Marbury Plaza tenant leaders, the OAG, and Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White. “[We’re] giving people a sense of efficacy. You have rights, you can enforce them, you just have to be aware of them,” Davis said.

In December, Davis and the Marbury tenants agreed to temporarily suspend bi-weekly mutual aid distributions during winter months to focus on organizing neighbors behind an

goDCgo.com info@goDCgo.com 202.299.2186

Barbara Cooper speaks to protesters in front of Marbury Plaza on Feb. 27. PHOTO BY BEN GUTMAN

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upcoming lawsuit. According to Davis, Rising for Justice, Neighborhood Legal Services Program, and more than 90 tenants are planning for future litigation. They will seek repairs for chronic maintenance issues and total or partial alleviation of thousands of dollars in rental debt for tenants. The conditions of the property, they say, have failed to meet the implied basic living and safety standards of their leases.

Davis said the tenants simply expect the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) to enforce the D.C. Housing Code.

Many striking tenants are veterans of the 2008–2010 rent strike campaign who benefited from thousands of dollars in back rent cancellation and investment concessions won through organizing. In 2010, UIP was forced to replace roofs and heating, air-conditioning, hot water, and building-access systems. However, tenants have also experienced a continuous decline in living conditions throughout the past decade without an active tenant association.

“The mold, the asbestos, the water leaks, the mice, the pests, those things are structural issues that still need to be addressed,” Davis said. “Americans with Disabilities Act violations like not having a wheelchair ramp in the back building, wheelchair lifts being broken for periods of months, elevators being broken to where people are missing medical appointments … none of these have been addressed. I think that’s a lesson learned from tenants who still live here.”

Approximately 25 Marbury Plaza rent strikers and other housing activists held a protest outside the building on Feb. 27 to help recruit tenants for the lawsuit and put pressure on Vantage Management.

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OPINION

We clothe our columns

BY CHARLIE MUSOFF

Working with people experiencing homelessness, I often start to feel numb, hardened to the injustices that brought me into the work in the first place. I also often start to feel distraught, drowned under those injustices’ weight, sometimes at the same time. As of late, when I tip too far in either direction, I touch back to a midrash — a piece of commentary on a Jewish religious text — that I read recently. In it, a third-century rabbi named Rabbi Yehoshua travels to Rome and, there, notices something peculiar. First, he sees thick, marble columns wrapped in blankets to protect them from the heat and the cold. Right beside them, he sees a poor person laying on a single thin reed mat and covered by another. He comments because he cannot understand this difference. To Rabbi Yehoshua, a society that takes better care of its riches than it does of its people is simply unconscionable.

This scene remains all too familiar, especially in D.C. Street Sense Media’s offices are half a mile from the White House, and a new couple just pitched their tent on our block the other week. And that’s

just the tip of the iceberg. One of my clients had to defend herself and her neighbors from an encampment clean-up last month.

Another wanders the streets in the dead of night, pushing her broken walker. A year into homelessness, another has turned to substance use. Another, a returning citizen, doesn’t have a reliable place or phone number for his parole officer to reach him at, so he lives in constant fear that he’ll be ambushed by cops with a warrant for his arrest. The wife of another calls me every day to ask whether I’ve seen her husband, and every day I tell her that I haven’t.

Clients constantly tell me that they’ve been robbed or beaten up, or that they’ve been unable to sleep soundly or find a warm meal for nights and nights in a row. On outreach, sometimes I’ll ask which of my supplies someone needs — hats, gloves, hand warmers, toe warmers…— and they’ll respond, “Yes.” This is a list of horrors, one after the next, and it is my job to listen and act on them if I’m able. I often feel crushed by the ways society discards my clients and yet, in the same moment, have to tell them that I

can’t help, for the problems are often much larger than my two-person department can handle. It’s only natural that it’s hard to keep my head above water, and I’m not even the one being forced under. Being relatively new to this line of work, it’s

giving the column’s blanket to the poor person; the thrust of his reflection is on what this man’s plight says about society as a whole. As such, the solution must be the transformation of our world into one that values and honors people over

“I often feel crushed by the ways society discards my clients ... I want to build myself up to a point where I can shoulder these problems, sustain my work, and channel that energy toward lasting, systemic change.”

difficult to envision a future in which I don’t become either too traumatized by or too immune to clients’ pain to continue on.

But that’s not a foregone conclusion. I want to build myself up to a point where I can shoulder these problems, sustain my work, and channel that energy toward lasting, systemic change. That’s where this midrash comes in. Again, Rabbi Yehoshua’s answer isn’t as simple as

property. That’s easier said than done, but it must be the center of this work, of my work. And from that grounding, I can source the resilience to help my clients persevere when we can’t yet find a weak spot in the city’s priorities and to fight with them tooth and nail when we can.

Charlie Musoff is a case manager with Street Sense Media.

Searching for truth in a world full of make believe

BY JEFFERY MCNEIL

As I write for and sell Street Sense, I have tried to become less political. I have no interest in toeing the line, but I strive to be more cooperative on issues where I can find common ground. In the past, I clashed with managers, editors, and volunteers. I had little patience with college students spouting off about homelessness when they haven’t experienced homelessness themselves, but I get along with the staff Street Sense has today. They don’t come off as ideological know-it-alls who want to impose their worldview on others.

I am often asked to become more involved. I decline because I have no desire to manage or control people. I began joining writers’ clubs, and in the future, I plan on starting a social media platform where what I say isn’t restricted. I believe I have more depth than single issue topics like homelessness, race, or politics. I have many hobbies and interests, including poker and fishing, both of which speak to my political philosophy.

Poker in some ways is like the stock market. It doesn’t matter if the market is up or down. Poker is a game of opportunity: I can make fortunes in misery or play the rides.

So what leftists talk about is nonsense. If they knew anything about money, they would strategize how to make it grow rather than complain about inequality. I was never a game theorist, but poker taught me about decisionmaking. I have no desire to be equal and belong to a collective group. I want to win; I love the rewards of winning. There is no greater joy taking on a thousand people in a poker tournament and beating engineers, doctors, and other very brilliant people.

Similarly, while I can hold my own in any game, I love fishing. When fishing competitively, it’s fun to watch the pros with the latest technology, million-dollar boats, and fish finders get outsmarted by someone that has a couple of lures and a skiff.

Selling newspapers taught me failure is inevitable, but also that the person who shows up the next day will overcome the grind of rejection and find success. Some days I sell zero papers, and on others, I sell a hundred. The key is never to put yourself in a position where you must sell a hundred papers or face peril. I learned how to treat my bankroll like ammunition; I spend every penny wisely until other opportunities present themselves. There is no material benefit or magic pill that will make you happy. Life is a battle. I don’t need a protector to shield me from danger.

I also have no interest in belonging to the global community. Street Sense has plenty of writers and vendors that subscribe to the ‘Woe is me, I’m a victim’ attitude. I can’t be out-oppressed. I’m Black, not African, because I’m American-born. I’m also part Cherokee, and 5’11, so I’m triple screwed. You’re talking to the wrong person if you want to bellyache about slavery. Andrew Jackson marched my ancestors off on the Trail of Tears and the colonial powers tried everything to exterminate us, including giving us blankets filled with smallpox. So you can march, protest, and be butthurt, but I’m 100% colonized by the American system of free markets and American exceptionalism. I love God and the family and support of gun ownership, and couldn’t care less if it offends anyone.

That doesn’t mean I don’t listen. At one time, I didn’t care how you felt about my political views. Today I’m

more patient with trolls and partisans. Some want to turn everything into a food fight between the Republicans and Democrats. They see the world as black and white, rather than nuanced. They don’t realize they became what they claim to hate. Wokeness and cancel culture are the modernday white supremacism. Leftist parrots campaign for rule by popular vote. What possibly could go wrong with that?

What if you’re a minority in a white majority town, and they vote to take your business? Imagine being a woman in a community where men are the majority. What if some genius decides since there aren’t enough women to go around, and their needs must be met. Now those women who wanted popular democracy live under tyranny.

Liberals always preach the word “equality.” But does equality lead humans to peaceful coexistence? If socialism leads to happiness, then why do all cities run by Democrats end up like Portland and Chicago, embroiled in violence? I think people who care for humanity will finally end this sad chapter of cancel culture, with its calls to rid the world of Dr. Seuss and Mr. Potato Head.

Despite my battles with pettiness, I hope the world will return to coexistence and avoid bloodshed. I didn’t live through the great depression or Nazi Germany. But we are truly living in an era of degeneration and insanity.

For some reason, people we elected are moving at warp speed to tear down this country.

I don’t know their motives. But this has been the mother of all overreaches.

Jeffrey McNeil is a vendor with Street Sense Media.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

Taking advantage of low-income homebuyers in DC — all the way to the bank BY jonetta rose barras

This column was first published by TheDCLine.org on Feb. 18.

When nine Black women were accepted into DC’s Home Purchase Assistance Program for first-time homebuyers, they believed they were moving to the next rung of the economic ladder through the acquisition of real estate while providing stable housing for themselves and their children. Instead, they were thrust into a multiyear battle over shoddy construction and repairs performed by the developer, Stanton View Development.

Further, they were forced to plead for assistance from the DC Department of Housing and Community Development (DHCD), the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs (DCRA) and the DC Office of the Attorney General (OAG). The response from each agency was either callous or insufficient.

“I thought working my way from homelessness to homeownership would bring me and my family joy, but all we have had is a nightmare,” said Robin McKinney.

“You hear people talking about affordable housing and helping native Washingtonians like myself stay in the city. But when I needed the help, no one answered the call,” she added.

The nine women — McKinney, LaDonna May, Ade Adenariwo, Britney Bennett, Theresa Brooks, Devina Callahan, Denine Edmonds, Ciera Johnson and Jaztina Somerville — purchased condos in 2017 at 1262 Talbert St. SE in Ward 8. Last month, they filed a lawsuit against Stanton View Development, RiverEast at Anacostia LLC and DHCD in DC Superior Court.

“The nine single black women that we represent have been left to fight for themselves.

They have worked hard to live the dream of homeownership, not only as first-time home buyers, but many wanting to change the legacy of renting in their families,” LaRuby May of May Lightfoot PLLC, who is representing the homeowners, wrote in an email. Her sister, LaDonna, is among the injured.

“Their ask of the city — help us hold accountable the developers and builders who owed us a safe place to live. The District response was to ignore them for over three years and leave them living in unsafe living conditions,” added May. Callahan said she is “afraid” for the physical safety and health of her children because of

the “many problems that have been discovered in my home.” She said that within a year of moving to Talbert Street “my home began to fall apart right before my eyes.”

The lawsuit alleges Stanton View, RiverEast and DHCD violated the city’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act and the DC Human Rights Act, made false and misleading statements in a public offering, committed fraud, engaged in negligent construction, breached its warranty against structural defects, and intentionally inflicted emotional distress on the nine women.

Neither Stanton View Development — headed by Jerry Vines and Don Lee — nor RiverEast returned my telephone call or responded to my email seeking a comment on the allegations.

May told me that she has yet to receive an official response from the companies to the lawsuit. DHCD director Polly Donaldson did not directly respond to my email request for an interview.

Richard Livingstone, deputy chief of staff and communications director for the agency, writing on behalf of the DHCD, said, “We do not comment on pending litigation.” He did not reply to my subsequent email asking him to provide specific documents related to the construction of the condominiums known as RiverEast at Grandview.

The DC Office of the Attorney General has indicated to the courts that it will represent the DHCD; it is the official legal representative for every government agency. May indicated that all parties are expected to appear in court — virtually — in April.

The Talbert Street homeowners’ saga has raised questions about whether Mayor Muriel Bowser is, as she has claimed, committed to bringing quality homeownership to lowand moderate-income residents east of the Anacostia River. The women may not have been victims of traditional redlining.

Nonetheless, it appears they have suffered similarly deceptive, exploitative and discriminatory practices combined with sluggish government enforcement.

Further, their stories expose the challenge ahead for D.C. elected officials who have promised to disrupt policies that perpetuate racial and economic inequity. Nearly all of the primary players in this controversy are African Americans.

Unsurprisingly, the lawsuit has accused Stanton View, RiverEast and DHCD with discrimination “on the basis of race, sex and income status.” The women assert that they were denied “property, services, products and treatment on an equal basis to white males and/or higher income individuals.” They also say they were denied “affordable quality housing that was safe and structurally sound as was provided white residents of defendants’ properties and residents in predominantly white populated wards” of DC. One of the women reported water damage from dripping pipes in her kitchen and upstairs bathroom that eventually caused mold. Another found that every time she ran the water in her master bathroom, the toilet and tub in the lower-level bathroom would fill with sewage waste; she said she was forced to move after a pipe burst, rendering all the bathrooms inoperable.

“Not being able to live in a home due to plumbing issues, feeling unsafe in a unit and still having to pay a mortgage is frustrating, upsetting and unacceptable,” said Edmonds.

There were large cracks in the cement floors of one condo that may have been deliberately camouflaged with carpeting. If that weren’t enough, gaping holes developed between the windows and interior walls, according to the lawsuit.

The women reached out for help. Somerville tried to hire a lawyer; that person wanted $200 an hour. “Money I didn’t have,” Somerville said. “The mayor’s Ward 8 liaison offered me blow-up mattresses because I was sleeping in my living room due to the mold downstairs in my room.”

Like the others, LaDonna May said she initially took her complaints to Stanton View, hoping the company would do the right thing.

“But they only did cosmetic fixes.” Sometimes the developer refused their entreaties, saying in at least one case that the warranty had expired.

Truth be told, there wasn’t any warranty, although D.C. law required the developer to purchase a surety bond that was at least 10% of the cost of the property. It was DHCD’s responsibility to enforce that requirement. It failed to do so, even though Stanton View had received more than $6 million from the city’s Housing Production Trust Fund.

Stanton View wasn’t made to buy the warranty bond until two years after the project was completed and only after the women sought assistance from DHCD, according to the lawsuit.

That little bit may be one reason the agency was mum when I asked a bunch of questions.

LaDonna May also took her case to the DC Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs. She hoped a housing inspector would cite the developer for structural deficiencies.

The DCRA is by law required to approve all construction, particularly structural work, before issuing a certificate of occupancy.

Instead of holding itself accountable for its role in the problems homeowners were experiencing, DCRA cited May for housing violations and slapped her with more than $8,000 in fines, fees and penalties. A judge

/ / 11

in the Office of Administrative Hearings ordered the agency to work out a solution; the DCRA ultimately dropped its case, according to the lawsuit.

The women also went to the DC Council’s housing committee, headed by at-large Council member Anita Bonds. They said they received no response. Then, they turned to the OAG’s Office of Consumer Protection.

Since becoming the city’s first elected attorney general, Karl Racine has developed a reputation for hunting down slum landlords.

He has vigorously litigated against companies that deliberately deceive or commit fraud against DC residents.

The Talbert Street homeowners said, however, that “nothing happened” in response to their pleas for help. An OAG spokesperson disputed their assessment; an agency investigator toured the homes. “Since 2019, OAG has mediated between the homeowners and the developer of the condo building on Talbert Street SE to ensure necessary repairs were being made. The developer provided evidence that over $400,000 in repairs have been made since 2017,” the OAG spokesperson said, without indicating the total cost of work that is needed.

“In early 2021, our office learned of additional ongoing issues at the building, including sewage issues, which we were not previously aware of.

This is still under active investigation by our office,” the spokesperson added.

“No one thought that my child and I were worth helping,” said LaDonna May. “They all were OK with us living in unsafe housing.”

And, undoubtedly, paying mortgages for that unsafe housing. And being forced to honor covenants that prevent them from selling their property for a specified time.

In their lawsuit, the women have asked that such restrictions be removed, and that their status as first-time homebuyers be restored if they purchase a property elsewhere in DC. Further, they are demanding that Stanton View buy back “each unit at the [original] purchase price or market value, whichever is greater.”

They also are requesting compensatory damages, reimbursement for out-of-pocket expenses, compensation for emotional distress, and reasonable attorneys’ fees. If a jury gets to consider the case, they may get all that and more.

Where I am most focused, however, is on the demand that the District revoke or suspend Stanton View’s business license for failure to operate in the public interest.

Equally important is that the city be ordered not to provide any additional funding to the company or its affiliates.

That kind of clear and aggressive response may not prevent racial or economic inequity in real estate transactions. But it could reduce it by taking proven discriminators off the field jonetta rose barras is an author and freelance journalist, covering national and local issues including politics, childhood trauma, public education, economic development and urban public policies. She can be reached at thebarrasreport@gmail.com.

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ART

COVID-19

BY ROBERT WARREN // Artist/Vendor

Sometimes it all seems like a dream and when will we wake up from this nightmare called COVID-19?

The amplified and all the lies told no one really knows who will we remember today That soul that has passed away, yes, away To the other side No more tears to cry, no more worries No more need to hurry No more days all alone remembering sad love songs For where, oh mankind, did we go wrong?

Were we not the first, Were we not the best and worse That humanity has to offer? Are we just cursed By the most G.O.D. Is that another lie?

My lord never wronged me, I only wronged myself Someone say Amen to the end of these days of COVID-19 What will it all mean in the end?

Will we ever be the same?

Can we go back and close our eyes to the inequities and the injustices we breed?

Just wanting to see my baby girl smile I still see the look in my mother’s eyes One day before she died from COVID-19 ,my best friend And what does that say about me?

The children of Abraham’s best friend was the lord And I’m not supposed to pray sometimes for this life?

May the lord forgive us please Sometimes I just want to believe Sometimes I think of peace

Joy

BY RONALD SMOOT Artist/Vendor

There is a lot of stress and negativity in the world from people. Some people have mental illness such as myself.

For me to deal with it is to go to a mental health program.

And what I take pleasure in is going to work that I enjoy.

Doing that takes a lot of stress off my mind. To talk to co-workers and share our stories about our lives. And I enjoy doing my favorite activities like playing chess or watching TV with my friends. I find peace in selling my Street Sense paper, sitting in the park with my wife, or drinking a cold soda and eating food. I also watch and play sports and practice my religion. I love God in my life. He takes care of me always.

The Lord is my power

BY BROTHER JEFFERY CARTER Artist/Vendor

Oh, how God has been good to me. I never have to worry about where I am going to sleep or lay my head.

He shelters me, feeds me, and clothes me. He gives me abundant life and love.

His grace and mercy are so beautiful. He has never left me or forsaken me. He’s a great God; He provides me with all my needs. Just a little faith, even the size of a mustard seed, can do miracles. May peace and blessings be with you.

Gratitude

BY REV. JOHN LITTLEJOHN Artist/Vendor

First of all, what is gratitude? One definition is “the quality of being thankful, readiness to show appreciation for and to return kindness.”

The Holy Bible says in John 3:16: “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

When trying to bring homelessness to an end on a national and international level, we must show gratefulness, kindness, thankfulness and joyfulness, peacefulness, and togetherness. And the list goes on and on. Amen! Hallelujah!

Would you like to cultivate a greater sense of gratitude?

George Herbert, a seventeenth-century British poet, encourages readers toward that goal in his poem “Gratefulness.”

“Thou that has given so much to me, give me one thing more, a grateful heart.”

Herbert recognized the only thing he needed to be thankful was simply an

awareness of the blessing God had already given him.

The Bible declares Christ Jesus as the source of all blessings in Romans 11:36: “For of him, and through him, and to him, are all things. This likely isn’t right, but I don’t know what is.

“All things” encompasses both the extravagant and the mundane, everyday gifts in our lives. Everything we receive in life comes directly from our heavenly Father, and he willingly gives us those gifts out of his love for us.

The Holy Bible talks about “gifts” in the Book of James 1:17: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”

It is truly a blessing when you can give cheerfully to those in need and receive cheerfully from those who just might have more than they need. Amen!

Did you know it is better to give than

to receive. Give and it should be given back to you. God gave his one and only begotten son, Jesus Christ our lord. Amen!

The Holy Bible says in the Psalm 51:10: “Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.”

To expand my awareness of God’s blessings in my life, I am learning to cultivate a heart that acknowledges the sources of all the joy I experience each day, but especially the ones I often take for granted.

What is this “so much” that God has already given to you?

Opening our eyes to those blessings will help us to develop grateful hearts.

Take a few minutes to thank God for what comes to your mind right now.

Try to do that throughout the day as well. When you think of all that’s good, thank God. The Holy Bible says in Proverbs 3:7: “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.”

Remembering Shernell Thomas

ARCHIVE PHOTO

Dear Street Sense Media, Several years back, Shernell was a regular Street Sense vendor at the Silver Spring Farmers Market on Saturday mornings, which is where I met her. We would always chat for a few minutes and sometimes I would buy her something from a nearby booth. Then suddenly she wasn’t there anymore. I found out from another Street Sense vendor that she had a stroke and was in the hospital, and I was sad to hear this. Later she came back a couple of times but she was not the same. Then I saw her one day at Shepherd’s Table in Silver Spring, where I was a volunteer. I was surprised to see her as I hadn’t seen her there before. I said “Hello Shernell. How are you?” She looked at me as if she had never seen me before and said, “How do you know my name?” I said we used to see each other at the Silver Spring Farmers Market. She just stared at me with no recognition. So I sadly realized that although she may have recovered physically from the stroke, it had still affected her mentally. She was no longer the outgoing, friendly person that I had initially met. I’m glad she was able to find some stability in her last year. She will be missed. May she rest in peace.

Sincerely, Dona Teplitz Dear editors, Shernell Thomas used to vend at Dupont Circle and I knew her for at least three years. I also used to see her occasionally riding the bus by the Starbucks near Gallery Place/ Chinatown before it closed.

She was very nice. She never told me her age but I was told she was a senior. I give my condolences to her family; may she rest in peace. R.I.P. my fellow vendor, Shernell Thomas.

Sincerely, Jemel Flemming

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

For this edition, Street Sense Media asked vendors to reflect on their experiences starting work with our organization.

Starting at Street Sense

BY DANIEL BALL Artist/Vendor

I got started at Street Sense in the year 2015.

My first experience was selling at 19th Street NW. And the people loved me, because I had a lot of respect, sold a lot of new Street Sense papers, and made a lot of good money on 19th Street NW. Now my girlfriend is a Street Sense vendor too. Thank you, Street Sense Media, for everything you have done for me for all these years.

Beginning as a vendor

BY REGGIE JONES Artist/Vendor

I started at Street Sense in 2018. A friend named Shawn Herring thought it would be a good fit for me and I went to the first orientation they had. From there, I was a temporary vendor. And I think I did pretty well selling papers with Shawn’s help because next thing you know I was permanent.

From then on, Street Sense has been good to me. I will not lie, I already had good people skills as far as talking to folks. Now it’s 2021 and I’m still here. So God is good.

FRIEZ—EN

BY FREDERIC JOHN // Artist/Vendor

The Frieze persists ‘Spite of smears and chips; Winter’s Freeze shall cease To Exist, Yet in Maga Lago The Burggj paces Restlessly— Desiring an Encore.

Will we allow this Beast One More Race?

Or may the Divine Grant us a Lasting Peace?

“The Frieze of American History” wraps around the inside of the rotunda of the United States Capitol. PHOTO COURTESY OF INGFBRUNO / WIKIPEDIA

Street Poem (Invisible)

BY ROCHELLE WALKER Artist/Vendor

To be invisible is my famous claim.

To be invisible is my favorite game.

A girl with no shame in this principle, a plain old human being don’t mean a thing.

I be invisible That way I don’t have to be here, on the scene in a world so cold.

I be invisible That way I don’t have to explain a thing.

What make you smile?

A mom? And dad?

What would make you cry?

Die on the street with nowhere to go?

So lonely in a world so cold.

What make you understand?

Justice, peace, believing in God, and love for all mankind.

That’s why I don’t have to be on the scene.

Still here, still strong

BY JOSEPH JACKSON // Artist/Vendor

I am still alive, and I miss everyone that has supported me through Street Sense. I’ve been locked up in jail, during this COVID-19 pandemic.

Someone spit in my face and I ended up getting charged with assault.

I am trying to stay strong out here. I don’t want to lose my place or my voucher. It is so hard trying to stay away from people when you already been known out here. Where are your friends at when you need them? They aren’t there. Frustration.

This year I want to start my own landscaping business to help care for people’s houses. Trying to pray to talk to God and ask him to help me with my temper and attitude.

The Walk

BY KYM PARKER Artist/Vendor

When we awoke from all of this Pain and sadness That feeling like the dark pit deep inside of us Is pulling us When the pain that aches from the touch of water The madness keeps us from looking up The pit that makes us so that we go back to sleep It happens to all of us Look up and know that in all things She loves you

// 1 3

The Tree of Life, Pt. 3

BY RON DUDLEY, aka “POOKANU” // Artist/Vendor

They say I’m the tree of life Everybody wanna kill me Now even the government tryna bring me down They say I’m the tree of life I was sleepin’ I was resting Now I’m resurrecting ‘Cause the world needs protection They say I’m the tree of life They wanna kill me for no reason Nailed a camera in my bark So they can watch through the seasons They say I’m the tree of life They even tried to give me COVID Nineteen times That’s when I exploded They say I’m the tree of life I got a warning from the heavens That the planet is headed for a dead end They say I’m the tree of life First I had to sweep and mop the galaxy I came back to sanitize democracy They say I’m the tree of life I caught a comet with a leaf It saved a baby as we speak They say I’m the tree of life You are a narcissist, the devil Even the tree couldn’t help you They say I’m the tree of life I just saved a shellfish from a whale ‘Cause it was helpless They say I’m the tree of life I just saved a whale ‘Cause a shark bit its tail They say I’m the tree of life I just saved a shark ‘Cause it couldn’t see in the dark They say I’m the tree of life I guided it back to the sea Then I fixed the pod on a pea They say I’m the tree of life They tried to kill me one night It was winter time They kill me with ice They say I’m the tree of life I was blind and could not see Then I bump my head into a tree They say I’m the tree of life.

The tree that inspired this poem and the preceding two.

PHOTO BY RON DUDLEY

1 4 // S T R E E T S E N S E

FUN & GAMES Sudoku #8 3

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No. 11: The Slaver

BY SAUL TEA Artist/Vendor

This is page 11 of a 13-part song book accompanying the “Hell’s Bottom Congress Of Puppets” folk opera, created by Saul Aroha Nui Tea. The song is loosely inspired by “The Boxer” by Simon and Garfunkel.

Look for the rest of the opera in future editions of Street Sense and find music videos made with puppets of the characters, along with more information about the project, at congressofpuppets.blogspot.com.

5 6 7 3 2 9

Author Gene Weingarten is a college dropout and a nationally syndicated humor columnist for The Washington Post. Author Dan Weingarten is a former college dropout and a current college student majoring in information technology. Many thanks to Gene Weingarten and The Washington Post Writers Group for allowing Street Sense to run Barney & Clyde.

STREETSENSEMEDIA.ORG

COMMUNITY SERVICES

SHELTER HOTLINE Línea directa de alojamiento

(202) 399-7093

YOUTH HOTLINE Línea de juventud

DOMESTIC VIOLENCE HOTLINE Línea directa de violencia doméstica

(202) 547-7777

1-800-799-7233

Housing/Shelter Vivienda/alojamiento

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Legal Assistance Assistencia Legal

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Employment Assistance Assitencia con Empleo

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Showers Duchas

All services listed are referral-free Academy of Hope Public Charter School 202-269-6623 // 2315 18th Place NE aohdc.org

Bread for the City - 1525 7th St., NW // 202-265-2400 - 1640 Good Hope Rd., SE // 202-561-8587 breadforthecity.org

Calvary Women’s Services // 202-678-2341 1217 Good Hope Rd., SE calvaryservices.org

Food and Friends // 202-269-2277 (home delivery for those suffering from HIV, cancer, etc) 219 Riggs Rd., NE foodandfriends.org

Foundry Methodist Church // 202-332-4010 1500 16th St., NW ID (Friday 9am–12pm only) foundryumc.org/ministry-opportunities

Friendship Place // 202-364-1419 4713 Wisconsin Ave., NW friendshipplace.org

Catholic Charities // 202-772-4300 catholiccharitiesdc.org/gethelp

Georgetown Ministry Center // 202-338-8301 1041 Wisconsin Ave., NW georgetownministrycenter.org

Central Union Mission // 202-745-7118 65 Massachusetts Ave., NW missiondc.org

Jobs Have Priority // 202-544-9128 425 2nd St., NW jobshavepriority.org

Charlie’s Place // 202-232-3066 1830 Connecticut Ave., NW charliesplacedc.org

Loaves & Fishes // 202-232-0900 1525 Newton St., NW loavesandfishesdc.org

Christ House // 202-328-1100 1717 Columbia Rd., NW christhouse.org

Martha’s Table // 202-328-6608 marthastable.org

Church of the Pilgrims // 202-387-6612 2201 P St., NW food (1-1:30 on Sundays only) churchofthepilgrims.org/outreach

Community Family Life Services 202-347-0511 // 305 E St., NW cflsdc.org

Community of Hope // 202-232-7356 communityofhopedc.org

Covenant House Washington 202-610-9600 // 2001 Mississippi Ave., SE covenanthousedc.org

D.C. Coalition for the Homeless 202-347-8870 // 1234 Massachusetts Ave., NW dccfh.org

Father McKenna Center // 202-842-1112 19 Eye St., NW fathermckennacenter.org

2375 Elvans Road SE 2204 Martin Luther King Ave. SE

Miriam’s Kitchen // 202-452-8926 2401 Virginia Ave., NW miriamskitchen.org

My Sister’s Place // 202-529-5991 (24-hr hotline) mysistersplacedc.org

N Street Village // 202-939-2060 1333 N St., NW nstreetvillage.org

New York Avenue Shelter // 202-832-2359 1355-57 New York Ave., NE

Patricia Handy Place for Women 202-733-5378 // 810 5th St., NW

Samaritan Inns // 202-667-8831 2523 14th St., NW samaritaninns.org

BEHAVIORAL HEALTH HOTLINE Línea de salud del comportamiento

1-888-793-4357

Laundry Lavandería

Samaritan Ministry 202-722-2280 // 1516 Hamilton St., NW 202-889-7702 // 1345 U St., SE samaritanministry.org

Sasha Bruce Youthwork // 202-675-9340 741 8th St., SE sashabruce.org

So Others Might Eat (SOME) // 202-797-8806 71 O St., NW some.org

St. Luke’s Mission Center // 202-333-4949 3655 Calvert St., NW stlukesmissioncenter.org

Thrive DC // 202-737-9311 1525 Newton St., NW thrivedc.org

Unity Health Care 3020 14th St., NW // unityhealthcare.org - Healthcare for the Homeless Health Center: 202-508-0500 - Community Health Centers: 202-469-4699 1500 Galen Street SE, 1500 Galen Street SE, 1251-B Saratoga Ave NE, 1660 Columbia Road NW, 4414 Benning Road NE, 3924 Minnesota Avenue NE, 765 Kenilworth Terrace NE, 555 L Street SE, 3240 Stanton Road SE, 3020 14th Street NW, 2700 Martin Luther King Jr. Avenue SE, 1717 Columbia Road NW, 1313 New York Avenue, NW BSMT Suite, 425 2nd Street NW, 4713 Wisconsin Avenue NW, 2100 New York Avenue NE, 2100 New York Avenue NE, 1333 N Street NW, 1355 New York Avenue NE, 828 Evarts Place, NE, 810 5th Street NW

Washington Legal Clinic for the Homeless 1200 U St., NW // 202-328-5500 legalclinic.org

The Welcome Table // 202-347-2635 1317 G St., NW. epiphanydc.org/thewelcometable

Whitman-Walker Health 1701 14th St., NW // 202-745-7000 2301 MLK Jr. Ave., SE // 202-797-3567 whitman-walker.org

For further information and listings, visit our online service guide at StreetSenseMedia.org/service-guide

// 1 5

JOB BOARD Community health worker Unity Health Care // D.C. Full-time The Community Health Worker is responsible for supporting HIV negative individuals who are at higher risk of becoming infected with HIV and/or who may have barriers to accessing resources and/or adhering to treatment or prevention. The Community Health Worker will also provide support to those who are in need of any STI treatment/ prevention resources or who may encounter barriers to care.

REQUIRED: High school diploma or equivalent, and extensive experience with HIV, substance abuse, incarceration, homelessness and other issues facing out of care HIV+ individuals.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/community-health-worker-job

Host/Hostess/Maitre d’ Rumi’s Kitchen // Mount Vernon Square Full-time or part-time // Weekends and holidays required The host position is open to applicants who do not have a high school diploma/GED, who have gaps in their resume, or who have been out of the workforce for the past 6 months or more.

REQUIRED: None listed.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/rumis-kitchen-job

Server Hot N Juicy Crawfish // Woodley Park Full-time part-time // Weekends and holidays required To apply, walk in with resume Mon. - Fri., 3 - 6 p.m., at 2651 Connecticut Ave. NW. REQUIRED: None listed.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/hot-n-juicy-crawfish-job

Youth engagement specialist Covenant House Greater Washington // Shipley Terrace Part-time // Thursday - Saturday // 12 a.m.

- 8 a.m.

This position will engage youth in appropriate educational, vocational, and life skill programming; work with their team to plan, implement, and support engagement activities facilitated by internal staff and external partners; ensure the safety and whereabouts of youth at all times and security of buildings and property are maintained; and provide specific trauma informed services to assist youth in successful outcomes REQUIRED: None listed.

APPLY: tinyurl.com/youth-engagement-specialist

ME AND MY RECOVERY, PT. 4:

Anger Management

BY VENNIE HILL Artist/Vendor

I happen to have a cousin who has five years clean. He is one of my supporters with my addiction. But he’s bossy and always telling me what to do with everything. I had been going strong with my sobriety, then here comes Super Bowl Sunday and we were talking about what we were going to eat. He said he wanted a seafood platter from Cameron’s Seafood. So I said I wanted to buy one too.

He comes out his mouth with, “You can’t afford a seafood platter, you’re not rich.”

That pissed me off. I’m like, “Who are you to tell me what I can buy or can’t buy?” So he hangs up the phone and tells me I’m too smart out the mouth so he can’t talk no more.

May I remind you he is one of my supporters in my recovery, so basically I talk to him all the time when I’m not selling my papers. He keeps me occupied with good conversation. I don’t think about drinkin’ when I’m talking to him.

But the thing of it is, he’s too bossy towards me. He’s all the time trying to tell me when to eat, what to eat, what I should be eating and what I shouldn’t. Yet he’s a dialysis patient and he eats what he wants to eat when he want to do it. He’s the one on a special diet, not me. But I say nothing to him. He’s grown, he knows what to eat and not to eat because he has doctors for that.

My cousin knows that I depend on him for his knowledge and help as far as staying clean is concerned, but he insists on using that time that I spend with him against me. Oh, this was not the first time. He does it any time I voice my own opinion. If I don’t say the right thing, he stops talking to me. Like I’m his toy or something.

He also has a sponsor. He told me his sponsor gives him assignments to do and he don’t do them. He says, “I’m a

grown man, I don’t have to do anything.” That just shows that he thinks he knows everything. But he doesn’t.

He reminds me of those people, places, and things that I am supposed to not hang around, because he’s not helping at all. He’s making the situation worse. But I do have to learn not to act too quickly, not to pick at him and think that that’s going to make everything alright. Because at the end, I look crazy.

Now I have to start all over with my clean time because he don’t want to talk to me and I’m hurt, like he rules my world.

I’ve made up my mind not to associate with him anymore, because he really hurts me when he decides to just up and throw our relationship away because I have a mind of my own. I get angry with him and then I pick up like I’m hurting him. I’m only hurtin’ myself in the long run. I’m not going to call him back anymore begging for his friendship, and I’m going to go on with my sobriety without someone that thinks he’s supposed to know my every move and tell me when and where to do this and that.

You can get help from others that have been where you been, but don’t let them just control your life. You can still do things for yourself, all your judgements ain’t wrong. You have sense enough to try and help yourself.

I still have to learn that I love myself and the only way to keep myself is to stay away from those who chose to harm me in any way that they can with their tricks and motives.

Well, no more playing with me. I’m not going to find nobody else to put in his place, I’m just going to keep my thoughts clean and clear from all the messes that people can bring along with them.

I’m on my own with this thing. Wish me luck. Until then, stay clean and stay sober.

I still have to learn that I love myself and the only way to keep myself is to stay away from those who chose to harm me.

Battling back with my battle raps

BY LATICIA BROCK, a.k.a. “PWEZZY” Artist/Vendor

I be the bridge that brings you over I be the tunnel that you cross But why did Jesus die on the cross?

To pay for a sin-debt that we can pay, if you follow the Ten Commandments: Love, give and obey But what if I don’t have the know-how?

“I will still forgive you, my child Don’t take your life and blaspheme against me I have a place in paradise and forever I’ll send thee For you I have a purpose” On this earth you might feel worthless But he’ll bless you, my babies Sleep in tents for years? Maybe For this house is not your home And with Pwezzy, you’re never alone I love you enough to care if your living and breathing Mayor Muriel Bowser, you have got to go!

What you’re doing is strict neglect Letting my babies suffer, while earning a fat paycheck All will be punished, what you’re doing ain’t funny Stop stealing our government money Look at my test, the proof is in a roof Go clean up my streets in D.C., and help Pwezzy’s babies, please!

Dedicated to all my suffering residents in Tent City.

Rise, Ma Pwezzy love you.

2018 photo of a person taking shelter in an underpass near Union Station.

PHOTO BY RODNEY CHOICE // CHOICEPHOTOGRAPHY.COM

Thank you for reading Street Sense!

From your vendor MARCH 10 - 23, 2021 | VOLUME 18 ISSUE 10

BY LEVESTER GREEN Artist/Vendor

Oh, you’re wise in treachery.

Let me check the directory for that trajectory before we proceed over directly 2 the treasury, followed by the gift of flowers at the burial.

Did they make it 2 the cemetery territory?

No farms but you caused them people plenty of alarm.

Now we got our real growing farms.

Proceed 2 finesse them with the wit & the charm.

Kurzca curses, but it lit a wick so there’s no harm.

Even tho the rest of the population is up in arms, ready 2 cause us a little more misery, while they should be up in these arms simply put, trying 2 pleasure me.

2 much cause for alarm, so I did it discreetly.

Under Da Bridge

Secretly.

Trying 2 find me out is like trying 2 battle me!

Not buffoon, so I don’t let it baffle me, but baby, you can buy it for me.

Best believe you’re valued homey & it don’t matter 2 me if you vote sweeter than honey, cuz I understand you just wanna get 2 know me.

Face 2 face. Take a chance.

They back biters. Talking bout the old me.

Got a resurgence & I did it without the use of surgery.

“Oh FREEDOM” & THAT’S BEFORE THEY GOT 2 BURY ME. Marry me?! Well baby, my lady in that category.

I’ll have 2 say “maybe” perhaps 1 day it shall be.

Let it be…

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